yahoo! PO is a great fun game. Message from someone whos won

[Ludwig]

Meemoe, when you return, could you please try to use '...ies' instead of '...ys' (e.g. companies/subsidies, not companys/subsidys). You managed it earlier with 'subcompanies' so I'm sure you could do it again if you put your formidable intellect to work.

Writing 'peak' and 'oil' as separate words would also be a good move. Using 'peakoil' makes you seem like you don't know what you're talking about, which is unfortunate.

Hope that helps.


(Apologies for dispensing slightly patronising advice unrequested: we all make the odd grammatical mistake, of course. It's just such a shame to see sincerely held convictions let down by a consistently sloppy use of English. Seemingly unimportant details can seriously undermine one's credibility, you know!)

I just don't read stuff that's not written in proper English. I figure if people can't be bothered to write properly, they can't be bothered to think properly; and when I do persist with badly-written posts, that assumption is usually corroborated. Unfortunately our education system no longer teaches people how to write OR think, which means I rule out the opinions of a whole generation. It's not their fault - but then it's not my generation's fault that we were educated properly.

[AndySir]

Unfortunately our education system no longer teaches people how to write OR think, which means I rule out the opinions of a whole generation.

While we may not know our plurals from our genatives we also can no longer distinguish prejudice from ignorance.

[ziggy12345]

Ludwig

You are just confirming your ignorance of what intelligence is. There are many very intelligent and smart thinkers that don’t use the sequential reasoning that lends itself to easily understand the written word. Most engineers and mathematicians are able only to think in images and understand the world by looking at it as a 4D structure of interconnecting dynamic nodes. This is how I see it and they (we) find it very difficult to convert this instantaneous view of the world in to a series of connected statements to be able to communicate this view to others who do not think the same as we do.

On the other hand it is easy for "us" to be able to communicate complex ideas to similar thinkers with just a few directed words, hand gestures and badly draw sketches. We have no need for complex sentences. Obviously you don't understand this as you are not one "us"

These are the 9 levels of intelligence of which you are No 7 and I am no's 3,4 and 9

http://skyview.vansd.org/lschmidt/Proje ... igence.htm

(Spellchecked for your reading pleasure, not mine)

[biffvernon]

There are many very intelligent and smart thinkers that don’t use the sequential reasoning that lends itself to easily understand the written word. Most engineers and mathematicians are able only to think in images and understand the world by looking at it as a 4D structure of interconnecting dynamic nodes. This is how I see it and they (we) find it very difficult to convert this instantaneous view of the world in to a series of connected statements to be able to communicate this view to others who do not think the same as we do.

That well constructed, correctly spelled and clearly informative paragraph disproves its own thesis.

(Let's forgive one split infinitive.)

[ziggy12345]

I said I found it very difficult, not impossible

(edited for spelling..)

[Ludwig]

Unfortunately our education system no longer teaches people how to write OR think, which means I rule out the opinions of a whole generation.

While we may not know our plurals from our genatives we also can no longer distinguish prejudice from ignorance.

I honestly don't know what point you are making. If you can't distinguish prejudice from ignorance, isn't that a bad thing?

Your incoherence illustrates my point perfectly. I can't tell if you are trying to express an idea, or merely trying to sound as though you have an idea.

(And honestly, if you can come out of school without knowing something as basic as what a plural is... What do they teach these days?)

[Ludwig]

I said I found it very difficult, not impossible

(edited for spelling..)

I wouldn't have guessed from your posts, Ziggy, that you had difficulties with writing, and if you do, that illustrates my point: that even older(ish) people who say they have problems with English, write it better than the supposedly best-educated members of the younger generation.

[Ludwig]

Ludwig

You are just confirming your ignorance of what intelligence is.

I'm not talking about intelligence, though: I'm talking about education.

150 years ago there must have been vast numbers of highly intelligent people working in coal mines. That doesn't mean their opinions on most matters would have been worth a fig. On most matters, they probably wouldn't even have an opinion.

I don't want to imply that I stop reading a post as soon as I find an error in it - but in many cases, it's clear that the writer is not even trying to make their English readable and comprehensible, and in such cases it's arrogant and self-centred of them to expect me to do all the work.

How people write on the Internet is their own business, and it's not my place to tick them off for sloppy English, but it's my prerogative not to read their posts.

[ziggy12345]

My wife is a counsels children and teenagers for a living and reads a lot about how to communicate with them. There is research to show that teenagers brains work differently than adults and they communicate differently

http://www.edinformatics.com/news/teenage_brains.htm

My point is that the English we speak is different than our parent and is different than the English teenagers have developed to communicate between themselves. I don't see it being right or wrong only different.

I don't think I have heard my 15 year old son utter more than 3 words in sequence for months yet he passed his a level English with A* before he was 15. As for education I must be lucky as both my kids are A* across the board. They are certainly more educated and worldly wise than me when I was their age.

A persons intelligence or education isn’t taken into consideration when they vote. That is the ultimate example of somebody’s opinion

[2 As and a B]

blah blah blah

What are you? And who pays you to write this rubbish?

[AndySir]

While we may not know our plurals from our genatives we also can no longer distinguish prejudice from ignorance.

I honestly don't know what point you are making. If you can't distinguish prejudice from ignorance, isn't that a bad thing?

Uh, no. Prejudice is a form of ignorance.

Your incoherence illustrates my point perfectly. I can't tell if you are trying to express an idea, or merely trying to sound as though you have an idea.

(And honestly, if you can come out of school without knowing something as basic as what a plural is... What do they teach these days?)

Confusing genatives and plurals is a common grammatical error which has been commented on on this board (writing "Ludwigs ignorance" instead of "Ludwig's ignorance," for example). I'm afraid I can't quite tell whether your last comment was genuine ignorance or just facetious.

I thought your comment about the younger generation was a careless generalisation made in frustration, hence the mild rebuke. Are you seriously trying to defend that position?

[UndercoverElephant]

Oh, I'd love to hear your views on AGW...

Nooooooooooooooo!

[marknorthfield]

I don't assume 'sloppy grammar' = 'sloppy thinking'; I know at least two people with immaculate English language skills who nonetheless spout utter bollocks about certain topics (AGW in particular). Unsurprisingly, they both take some pleasure in being mavericks and just that little bit right wing. (As it happens, one of them is an extremely good friend, though it helps that we have a few important things in common which transcend the disagreements.)

No, I was just so irritated by Meemoe's arrogance (particularly in the opening post) that I felt it needed puncturing. A weakness on my part to be goaded so, perhaps, but there you have it. I'm human.

Of course, we're all perfectly entitled to express our dubiously researched beliefs and have them rigorously debated, but launching oneself on to Powerswitch like some all-knowing energy messiah come to heal us of our sickness is blatantly asking for trouble. It's the logic of the cult leader: I have the truth and you must bow to my superior wisdom.

This still applies should one happen to have experience in the energy industry. A little humility can go a long way.

[madibe]

shame thiz thredz gone offtopic init? worra mean is like, why cant u dibate n stuff wiv out gettin fussy bout the way peeps talk like?

[madibe]

Also to mention, that all of this talk about correct grammatical posturing is full of shite. We all know why we are here and what we need to talk about. So why be f***ing elitist and run people down for the odd dropped apostrophe, typo or whatever?

Get a grip!